shatterverse | (no subject)

Entry tags:

edwin dobson,
sky

(no subject)

One moment, Edwin is tearing through the steppes...

...and the next, he (and his horse) find themselves in very unfamiliar territory. Huxley pins his ears back and snorts at the sudden flash, rearing slightly, while Edwin fights to remain in the saddle as he looks around. "A storm?" he asks himself, looking up a sky that seems anything but stormy. He starts as his attention goes to the rest of the landscape-it certainly looks dry enough, but this...isn't Euloria.

His horse, meanwhile, recovers quite a bit more quickly and begins to move along at a quick trot, apparently not bothered by the fact that he's trotting on pavement rather dirt. Edwin just hangs on, still staring at his surroundings, particularly at the sign that he passes by as Huxley continues onwards-Snakewater, Montana - Pop. 21,500.

At least, that's what it says underneath the scratch marks covering the population number. Beside the former number, someone's painted 15.

Edwin is fairly certain that isn't a terribly good omen.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The raptors (the full-time raptors, that is) aren't exactly sure what to make of this, either. The lead male and female squabble amongst themselves briefly about what to do, hissing and nipping, while the younger male attempts to just get over the fact that some normally easy prey now looks, sounds, and smells mostly like a raptor, what the hell.

Edwin just keeps his crest up and watches the trio with jerky, bird-like movements of his head, jaws still slightly gaped. Part of him is concerned about not getting himself (and Huxley) eaten; the other part is making mental notes about the dinosaurs' behavior.

Finally, the lead male snorts briefly, snaps his own jaws at Edwin, and then turns to trot away, followed by the other two. They'd prefer prey that's less likely to lead to their faces being chewed off.

"Well. That was impressive...ly weird."

Sky can pause ambiguously in the middle of a word! She is THAT COOL, dude.

"Khht." Edwin looks back to her, looking about as sheepish as a raptor can look. He'd been planning to keep the whole 'skin thing under wraps.

But he has other problems to deal with at the moment-namely, pants problems. (Also shirt and whatnot, but mainly? Pants.) He looks around for a moment before pushing Huxley into a walk, heading for a tree. It's not much to hide behind for changing, but it's better than nothing.

Giggle.

Hiding from an air spirit? He is naive.

It's the thought that counts?

A few minutes later, Edwin-human again, and in intact clothes-comes out from behind the tree, leading Huxley and carrying the shredded remains of his former outfit. "I've lost more pants that way," he mutters to himself, shaking his head and going to stuff the rags into one of his saddlebags. Maybe they'll come in handy later.

He remounts, glancing over to Sky and looking sheepish again. "Sorry. I'd...hoped that wouldn't come up."

"Not a problem. Strange, but not a problem. So, skinshifters, huh? No wonder you know they're not demons."

Edwin continues to look sheepish as he coaxes Huxley into a walk, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't feel demonic, at least. I didn't when I first changed and I still don't. And the herders got a laugh out of the idea, but that was the first time I'd ever seen anyone do that."

"Herders...?"

"Eulorian herders. Some of them are dinosaurskins-I, er...was bitten by one." That sheepish look remains. "I thought she was some kind of new bird species and tried to catch her with part of a tent."

Obviously, things didn't go as planned.

"That must've been exciting," Sky comments dryly.

"Mostly painful," Edwin admits. "Velociraptors are small-the ones that followed us were gigantic-but they have sharp teeth. And claws." He paused. "And they're quite good at thrashing their way out of things."

"Well, you seem to've come out of it okay."

"If with feathers," he says with a bit of smile. "I've been trying to keep records about it, particularly the biology-it's fascinating, being able to turn into a dinosaur and see everything that everyone was wrong about."

His mood is definitely picking up. Dinosaur biology is, perhaps not surprisingly, a favorite topic of Edwin's.

"Sure."

Sky clearly couldn't give a rat's ass.

Edwin apparently doesn't notice, caught up in rambling about the subject. (Forgive him. It is his life's work.)

"Like being able to move so quickly-they have to be warm-blooded, or at least the dromaesaurs are, because otherwise I couldn't move half as fast, at least not for a sustained period like that, and the feathers-the feathers are amazing! No one, no one has even put forth the idea yet! At least not in any published papers; for all I know, someone might be working on one now-but it's amazing. Birds have to come from dinosaurs, somehow-some common ancestor species or a more direct path leading towards birds, I don't know which yet. But speed, feathers, warm bloodedness-oh, and the limb positions. Of course, we've had to do quite a bit of guessing as to how one's supposed to set up the skeletons, since generally they're jumbled, but by looking at the skeletons we just found and looking at my animal form, we've gotten that all wrong, too..."

...Sky... is just going to smile and nod, kthx.

Edwin pauses in his ramble for a moment to look at Sky again. "You've seen dinosaur fossils before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, in musems 'n stuff."

"I wonder how close your dinosaurs are to the ones from where I come from-we haven't found that many species yet, but I did hear that apparently some rushes to begin digs were happening elsewhere. Though we didn't have any problems with competitors in Euloria."

"The claws're the same," she offers after a moment. "On those guys and the skeletons I've seen around."

"Do you know what they're called? Obviously they're some sort of dromaesaur, but I've never heard of any bones that were that large, as far as they go."

"Dunno."

"Mm." Edwin looks thoughtful as Huxley plots on, pondering dinosaur family trees to himself. Ahh, the life of a scientist.

Sky just... floats, absently keeping pace with the horse.

Thinking is for other people.

Something finally occurs to Edwin. "How far is to Kansas, exactly?" He's sure she likely knows the right way...but he's curious as to how long it'll take them.